Is your Company about to be De-registered? (Abuja)

The Corporate Affairs Commission has threatened to strike out the names of about 45,000 companies from its registers for failing to file returns since their incorporation.

The Registrar-General, CAC, Alhaji Bello Mahmud, was said to have stated this in a statement issued by the Director, Public Relations Unit, Mr. Churchill Williams, which was made available to our correspondent on Monday.

The statement said Mahmud, while presenting the commission’s report to the Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association in Calabar, Cross River State, wondered why the firms had refused to file their annual returns despite several reminders.

This, according to him, is a violation of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, Protected content .

The statement said, “On the striking off of dormant companies, the registrar-general said the exercise had resumed and about 45,000 companies that defaulted in the filing of their annual returns since incorporation despite several reminders would soon be struck off from the register.

“However, the commission will give the companies one last opportunity to update their records by publishing their names. Any company that fails to comply at the expiration of the deadline will have its name struck off from the register.”

As part of efforts to meet the expectation of its customers and standardise its processes, the CAC had also introduced the Companies Regulation, Protected content .

Mahmud said the regulation, which was approved by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, pursuant to Sections 16, Protected content 609 of the CAMA, was intended to fill some of the gaps in the substantive provisions of the Act.

He added that the regulation now required every director and subscriber of companies under Part ‘A’ and Trustees of Association under Part ‘C’ to submit recognised forms of identification.

These are the information page of travel passports, drivers’ licence and national identity card as proof of their identity before registration.

The new requirement, the statement said, would help to check cases of underage directorship, fake identification and fulfil national and international obligations under different anti-money laundering and counter terrorism legislation.